Pelican & Gazelle

Thursday, May 08, 2008 - Divine Mercy Hour

Nunraw Guest House

The visitors are enjoying the first real heat of the Spring. The Word for the Morning Mass for the Guests was on the shining new day of the first heat-wave of this Spring. The bright sunshine has highlighted the winter’s crop of pot holes in the avenue and the gaps in the stone dykes. The volunteers have been setting about the mending and fixing. We think of the mending and fixing in our own inner life. As we approach PENTECOST, the best mender and fixer we have is the Holy Spirit.

The same sun was illuminating the Guest House Chapel for the Divine Mercy Hour of Adoration which is observed on Thursdays at 3 o’clock. I am not sure if it was a great distraction but my eyes looked up at the Historic Ceiling (c.1610). The painting is full of scrolling and windings. For the first time the PELICAN – the great symbol of the Eucharist’ seemed to jump down at me. Afterwards I took the attached photograph. I am not sure how to interpret the two winged figures with human faces and four legged bodies.

On the next panel, since I began taking a closer look at the adjoining panels, I was thrilled to discover the beautiful figure of the GAZELLE which I only ever saw in the flesh on the hills above the Dead Sea. In this painting the Gazelle has a band around its belly extending into the form of a large bow. Someone is surely going to tell me what it all signifies.